At Mitchell, SD

We're on our way to Lanesboro, MN for the Folks-on-Spokes, Gulf Shores bicycle rally.  We left the hatchery Monday with stops at Dubois, WY; Casper, WY; Hill City, SD; and tonight at Mitchell, SD.

Weather has not been kind to the eastern half of South Dakota.  We'd planned a stop about halfway across South Dakota at Kennebec, but that RV park was soaking wet and closed.  Though they'd let us stay as we had reservations, it was just way too wet for us.  Donna suggested we continue on to Mitchell and after a quick phone call, we started on our way.  Only problem:  that same phone call also warned us that I-90 was closed west of Mitchell.  We stopped at a rest area to get some suggestions, and we continued east.

Now, one would think that with two GPSs and two phones with Google Maps, the detour would be easy to find and follow.  Nope.  All those hundreds of dollars we spent on these "marvels-of-technology" and the annual subscriptions & monthly data to use them were totally useless.  SiriusXM TravelLink for the in-dash nav?  Didn't have a clue (and rarely does, so no surprise there). Garmin RV GPS with links & antenna for local travel info?  Useless.  (and apparently for the first half-hour to hour of use on Wednesday morning, the Garmin couldn't find a single city in South Dakota, either.)

Google Maps should come to the rescue, right?  I mean, we've got two of those darn android phones.  Wrong!  Yep, it knew I-90 was closed from Plankinton to Mitchell.  So off it sent us through Plankinton and a side road to US 281.  Looked good as it would route us around the backup at the actual closure at exit 310.  Only problem:  the main road from the interstate into Plankinton was also flooded!  Try "Turn-around, don't drown" when there's no place to really turn around with a big rig.  (Local news now indicates that Plankinton is pretty much shutdown tomorrow.  Guess someone finally got around to going there and took a look.)  And we wouldn't have been there if the piece of horse manure electronics and app had done it's job.  All the data that Google knows about Donna & I, but it's incapable of following a known detour???  Really???  And this is the technology people are planning to use for navigation on autonomous vehicles???  Really???

Best piece of info:  the map the lady at the visitor center gave Donna with written arrows showing the way around the closed interstate.  Let's see Google (or any of these other companies) use that on their autonomous vehicles!

Oh, and guess what?  As I write this, I-90 - according to local news - is now closed from Mitchell to I-29 in Sioux Falls.  We made be here a little longer than plan!  I mean, Google Maps indicates that I-90 between Mitchell and I-29 at Sioux Falls is closed, but suggested "steps" are - you guessed it - along I-90, anyway.  Yeah, that'll work...  Hooray for technology!

Until next week, David